The BBA's Consumer Finance Working Group, co-chaired by Andrew Dennington (Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford, LLP) and Adam Ruttenberg (Looney & Grossman LLP), has submitted its proposed recommendations for revisions to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s regulations at 940 C.M.R. §§ 7.00 et seq. regarding collection activities by "creditors" of debts incurred "for personal, family, or household purposes."  The recommendations stem from the First Report of Consumer Finance Working Group, which the BBA formally endorsed last week.  The timing of the Report aligns well with the enactment of the new federal finance reform legislation.

The Consumer Finance Working Group was formed in the Spring of 2008 to evaluate consumer finance products, and to assess the problems that have arisen with some of them.  The Working Group was formed by the BBA's Bankruptcy Section and the Banking and Financial Services Committee of the Business Law Section.  It is composed of lawyers who practice in the Massachusetts state courts and in the federal court, and who represent both creditors and debtors.

The Working Group focused its efforts on consumer debt collection and amending the Attorney General Regulations so they would largely track the more modern federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and recent revisions of Massachusetts Division of Banks regulations regarding activities by licensed debt collectors.  The proposal contained in the Report would ensure that debt collection practices that are unfair or deceptive when conducted by a licensed debt collector, would likewise be unfair or deceptive when performed by a creditor.